It is necessary to transport objects having edges with angular, generally right angular cross section, such as containers like boxes and stacks of boxes, cartons or crates, other rectangular objects including but not limited to concrete blocks, bricks, stacks of materials such as gypsum board, plywood, sheet metal, cardboard, paper and other sheet material. These objects are often placed on pallets for transportation.
These objects must be secured during transport, usually by tie-downs such as ropes, cargo straps, or other lashings. Some of these containers or materials have a limited mechanical strength, particularly at their top edges where the ropes cargo straps or other lashings come into contact with and exert large forces on the top edges of these objects. In many cases, deformation of the top edges of these objects will damage the objects or the containers. In addition, where the cargo load consists of numerous small objects such as bricks, blocks, or smaller boxes, it is often necessary to stabilize the load across portions of the top edges of the load to prevent movement of ones of the objects that are not in contact with the tie-downs.